The Justification of War and International Order. From Past to Present

The project examines the inter­relationship between the (de-)legitimation of military force and the emergence of world order thinking. Starting from the assumption that throughout the history of inter­national relations interstate violence was always in need of justi­fication, the research project examines to what extent continuity or change can be identified in the way the justi­fication of war relates to the construction of world order. In particular, we want to find out which patterns of reference to inter­national order can be deduced from war justi­fications in historical perspective. The crucial question here is to what extent legit­i­mization practices of political actors refer to an inter­national normative order, to what extent they shape this order by referring to it and, finally, to what extent they are influenced by what they perceive to be the ‘ruling’ normative order. Along this line, does it make sense and is it possible to observe ‘progress’ in the way the justi­fication of war and the emergence of an inter­national legal order relate to each other?

Although the justification of war is constitutive for the emergence of the modern normative world order, there is a lack of systematic and comparative reflection on the linkages between justifying war and modeling world order in theory and practice. This applies in particular, but not only, to an empirical comparison of contemporary justi­fication narratives with those in the ‘forgotten’ 19th century. The project addresses this research gap initially as a publication project: In addition to existing publications, a historical-comparative anthology with articles by leading scholars from the fields of inter­national law, legal and political history as well as political science is in preparation.

In addition, a larger project on the questions outlined here is to be developed from the research context.